and Mulberry crumble for dessert…

…but made this at home with mulberries from the freezer because the puddings are never this good.

Four Horseshoes – big lunch

Went for a walk around Thornham and popped into the Four Horseshoes – a Greene King pub -mid-afternoon to find their carvery still in full swing. It runs all day and is £10 for a plate enough to keep my teenage son happy.  Good choice of nice veg but we are starting to spot the obvious but fatal flaw in a Carvery – how do you keep the meat moist and juicy?   We have to keep choosing the fatty Pork Belly (which was quite tasty) as everything else looked a bit dry…

Pakenham Fox

Sunday lunch at Pakenham Fox this time, where a crowded pub indicated this is a popular event.  The buffet had a choice of three meats (had the roast belly of pork – looked the freshest and tasted pretty good).  You get called up table by table and can pile your plate as high as you like for £8.95.

 

 

Walnut Tree Farm lunchclub

It was only at the end of our lunch that I realised I was actually in Roger Deakin’s farmhouse, looking at the moat he swam in.  I have just been reading Notes from Walnut Tree Farm – Jasmin tells me she gets lots of visitors ‘just wanting to have a look’ at where he lived and wrote about. Lunch was good – everything home-made with lots of quince chutney made even better with the really good wine we had brought with us. I had some interesting conversations with John but couldn’t work out if we were the only ones who didn’t know everyone else? That’s the problem with Suffolk isn’t it – lunch clubs and pop-up restaurants might be just too London for here – but Jasmin will find out and let us all know. 

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Something for everyone at the Gardeners Arms

After football what you really need is a big old plate of roast beef, half a bitter shandy and a chance to read about Arsenal/X Factor in the News of the World – and they serve Sunday lunch until 3pm. 

Woo hoo – a lunch club and we’re going!

Sunday lunch round a big table with people you don’t know – how exciting is that? If you want to go to too, you can see the menu and book here -  http://walnuttreefarmlunchclub.blogspot.com/p/lunch-dates-and-menus.html

Oozing with sugary pinkness.

 

 

Wyken Sunday Lunch

This is an expensive and rather pretentious farm shop, but I can’t fault the food in their cafe. Lunch goes on until 4.00pm, perfect for those of us who only decide we want to go for a walk at 1pm. We look at the llamas for a few minutes to justify eating, then a table becomes available and I can only put it on the blog if I have tasted the food.  We had Stowlangtoft lamb brochette (on a stick) with a lovely aubergine side, yoghurt sauce and rocket salad. A salmon fish cake with (not very sweet but very hot) sweet chili sauce, maybe they bought the wrong one… a side order of very hot and crisp french fries and a selection of three British cheeses – Keens Cheddar, Oxford Blue and Gold Medal something, that I made them swear to remember the name but they have already forgotten. All three were as delicious a cheese as you are ever going to find anywhere and served at the perfect temperature. Then puddings – white chocolate bread and butter pudding which sounds revolting but was actually much nicer than it sounds, rhubarb mousse because I haven’t had any rhubarb yet, fab pink and very sweet, but on a suspect too-white (shop?) meringue basket, and carrot cake which I don’t like in any shape or form but still managed to taste.

Oh the joy of eating late when you want to ! And it was lovely food; no obese oversize portions and a menu that you are never going to see in your average pub Sunday lunch.  It was £15.00 each including soft drinks. Not bad for everything sourced within five miles of the kitchen!

Cretingham Bell

Come back from a sunny and freezing Sunday morning walk around the village (according to the village sign it was first settled by Goths although we didn’t see any today) and although the pub looks dead from the outside, it’s busy inside with a warm fire and serving food until 4pm…hooray! There’s a warm welcome for us in our wellies and several families with children eating lunch.  They can’t do me a mulled wine (red wine + spices + sugar + microwave?) so have cider instead. Their seasonally-limited menu of food tastes better than described on the board which is always a bonus - but don’t fancy curry or chili so chose a burger from depressing childrens menu of burger and chips or sausage and beans (and chips). After filling it with salad from my sisters curry plate it was ok but hoping next time for oxtail stews, shepherds pies, casseroles… and in the summer a barbecue under that huge oak tree.